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Sustainable wind energy production in the forest

Climate change is one of the main threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. To achieve the climate goals of the European Union, Germany is expanding renewable energy production. As a result, the construction of wind turbines has strongly increased also in forests with changes in habitat structures. To better understand how habitat changes caused by wind turbines influence biodiversity and ecosystem functions, we study their impact on bird and bat communities as well as their role as predators for herbivorous insects (trophic control).

PIs: Franziska Peter and Nina Farwig

Team: Julia Ellerbrok and Finn Rehling

Cooperation partner: Christian Voigt (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research) und Paul Lehmann (University of Leipzig)

Project funding: DBU